Thanks. I got it into remote mode with my HD detached. The phone queue was too long to wait, have a number of online meetings all day. I hope we can get the HD back working, my family will be pretty pissed if I tell them we lost 2TB of shows.
A rather crappy solution was given to me: reformat,. The logs show it was corruption in the HD. The HD checks out fine (SMART), and the filesystem is clean (fsck), so apparently the stability of the whole system depends on what is written in the bytes on the disk. The wrong data can cause a constant reboot loop.
Bang – I just lost 1.8TB of shows that are no no longer being broadcast! I am going to have to look into some type of backup. The strange thing is that is is a files contents that causes the problem, not a failed HD. So RAID would not even help here. The best one can do is make periodic backups (snapshots) when the filesystem is functional.
The really unfortunate thing is that the firmware update caused the HD corruption. Maybe it was recording something when we updated. I will be much more careful in the future when updating firmware, making sure the system is not playing/recording (although I am not sure it was this time).
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I started reading through posts to see if other users have experienced what I am seeing, but wasn’t able to find anything. The search functionality doesn’t appear to really work. Anyway, the problem I have been seeing since updating to 2.2.32 is that frequently, maybe every 3rd or 4th recording, while I am watching, it will suddenly just go back to the beginning of the show. This happens just about every day. It is very frustrating, as I don’t know how far into the show I may have been and waste time trying to fast forward and find where I was, obviously more difficult the longer the recording is. I have been using my Tablo wired, since I had a number of problems with it wirelessly with the beta 2.2.31 and just haven’t gone back to wireless yet.
Support had once told me my (good) drive was failing. Copied everything to another drive - no read errors. Cleared drive, let taboo format and copied everything back - no write errors. And all was fine with drive for over a year.
Every issue is unique, this is only a condensed version of my steps.
As some believe "weak signal’s may be a generic, something’s wrong message - drive failure may mean something is wrong beyond what taboo deals with, and can’t continue. (This is a somewhat unsubstantiated speculation)
Did Tablo Support confirm this fact?
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Hi,
Tablo support did not make that statement. Their statement was that the problem was with the HD, and I should replace it or reformat.
The fact that the reboot loop started on the first reboot (right after the firmware updated) led me to make that statement.
So it might not be anything in the firmware, per say, but it could also be the firmware reboot process while the Tablo is doing something? Without knowing what is wrong with the data on the HD, and why the linux system on the Tablo reboots, it is impossible to say.
Cheers,
Scott.
Hey,
Thanks for the feedback. I did try that. I removed my internal HD, put a new external HD on the Tablo, formatted it, removed it and successfully copied the old internal HD to the new one. Adding the new HD to the tablo and rebooting showed a successful copy, but again the unit started to reboot every two to three minutes.
Tablo support said to reformat, and I did not really see any option at that point.
Cheers,
Scott.
Sad it didn’t work out… but if the “new” drive only rebooted with the “old” data on it, presumable the “old drive” may not be physically dying.
Copying files, not cloning, after creating a new file system (aka format) one would think should remove alleged corruption. If there’s something askew within the data files… that’s not really a disk problem. Tablo should just say not a valid -what ever.
but what ya gonna do.
It does seem coincidental a minority of users have failed drives or connectivity issues when they upgrade firmware… while it seem the vast overwhelming majority are trouble free.
If you have fear of loosing shows, someone has make a backup script for tablo devices - Backup-tablo.sh - Backup all recorded shows from a Tablo
Hey, I was looking at that script, and it looks like the only viable alternative to automate a backup.
It would be a much more robust solution to fail the recording with a message stating unable to read something. The only thing I can think of is that bad data causes too large a memory allocation, or something equally bad, that causes a critical process to crash.
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For the most part I export my shows, but I have used the script for various reasons. It works for restoring… to another drive (after you let tablo format it).
Or, since it backs up the /DB dir as well if you have complete failure you can “migrate to another tablo” or variations of unsupported/unrecommended drive swapping.
Formatting the Western Digital HD seemed to work for me
What issues did you have after the firmware update that required you to format the HDD?
Tablo kept disconnecting from network causing buffering. Recorded shows would take two three tries to start or would error out each minute of recording. Connecting message ket displaying on web page. Roku would find then lose tablo. Fire devices could not even find Tablo. Tried unplugging and moving closer to router and PC using shorter ethernet cable on different switch… Removed HD, formatted FAT32 in WIndows, plugged into Tablo and formatted to Tablo format. Seems to be working as before upgrade now, no connecting messages. Have WD2.0 GB USB 3.0 Hard Drive. Had to manually delete recorded show form Tablo database after formatting.
Too bad it wasn’t possible to interrogate the drive better, it might have been only one recording causing the problem - but which recording? Who knows?
Had you tried contacting tablo support (no fee) to resolve your issue …before clearing your drive? 
It may have “worked for you”, but it may not have been the only method available.
Has anyone noticed that the artwork for many of the shows is now only showing a portion of what they once did? This didn’t happen with all the shows, but for example, FBI is now showing up as BI. It’s like the image is magnified and we’re only seeing a part of it. I can’t be certain, but I didn’t really notice this until the latest 2.2.32 update. I use a Roku for controlling and watching the Tablo, but I see this on my Windows 10 Chrome browser as well.
Previously reported: Artwork is off center or cut off, title omitted - #12 by zippy
Appears to be an issue with the new guide data provider/api.
Looking at the web page info, it seems the dimensions of the “new” vs the old are different and tablo’s viewport remains constant - well this may not be the exact technical terms but the dimensions are different and tablo does resize them across different tabs (pages).
As noted with the new firmware, it may still be a work in progress, but in February it was the end of the month, and here we are the middle of March - what’s up with that?
How tablo displays it to me…
Direct download image full size…
Show not cutoff - 
Direct form tablo - 
The “new” hare more square then the original, but it seems tablo resizes them all to the same view… as though they were all taller.
Oddly enough, I wasn’t seeing this show artwork issue immediately after upgrading to 2.2.32 but I am seeing it now. Almost like a flip was switched between now and then, at least on our Tablo. I know others seemed to be seeing this immediately after installing 2.2.32. Maybe it’s something that both a) required 2.2.32 and b) required them to flip a switch for your account?
…or as the graphics got/get updated over time? not really a a deliberate switch as much as an announced “required change” to take place at no specific date. Not all mine have the “issue” suggesting it’s not switched on all-of-a-sudden. So are, many are not.